‘Given that this is not a flash in the pan – this is not something that is going to be resolved in a fortnight or a month, the coronavirus pandemic is going to be with us for months to come – we are going to have to ramp up domestic production on [gowns and face masks] as well,’ Mr Stevens said,

Although he acknowledged there had been ‘distributional problems’ getting PPE to some parts of the country, he added that the NHS had more than 28 million of the ‘most intense’ kind of face masks, with more in production.